May 6, 2012

¨I am certain there are many bishops who might be wonderful as the next

Archbishop of Canterbury. It seems as though the past practice has been to
alternate Anglo-Catholics with Evangelicals. I do not think a high-church
or low-church orientation is important in 2012.

As opposed to suggesting a specific candidate, I'd like to suggest that you consider and nominate
bishops who are wise, intelligent, experienced pastors, kind in demeanor to
all persons (even those persons with differing opinions), gentle as opposed
to domineering, not claiming to have all of the answers, not manipulative,
and very charitable. Please consider someone who is not a divisive or
hateful figure.

Do not consider someone who --exhibiting extreme poor
judgment-- is desperate and tasteless enough to use a criminally corrupt
tabloid such as "The News of the World" as a regular public forum or pulpit.

These qualifications would exclude anyone remotely similar to George Carey,
perhaps the worst bishop (and clergyman) in all of English Church history.

Also, please conduct your deliberations in an honourable manner. Secret
meetings conducted by Crown Nominations Commission members in men's toilets
are scandalous, indecent, unseemly, quite disgusting, perhaps unsanitary,
and open the Church to well-deserved ridicule by members of the public. No
CNC member (for example, the current Archbishop of York) who has been known
to discuss Church appointments (for recommendation to the Queen) while
cottaging in a public toilet should be considered suitable as a candidate
for Archbishop of Canterbury.

Also, I do not agree with the presence of a
person on the Commission who endorses so-called reparative therapy for gay
persons (a harmful, perverse, and abusive practice discredited by sound
research and repudiated by the medical community). There is no more place
on the CNC for a homophobic medical quack than a racist.

Thank you for permitting me the opportunity to share my suggestions and opinions.¨

Note: This email was sent to the Crown Nominating Commission by an American, cradle Episcopalian living and working in Europe.
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